I just finished listening to a sermon on Audio Sancto (www.audiosancto.org), and was struck by what the priest said. If you haven't yet heard of this website, I highly recommend it! It's full of wonderful, traditional sermons on a variety of topics. They average about 20 mins long. Anyway, I just finished this one: http://www.audiosancto.org/sermon/20130630-Devotion-to-HIM-is-the-Key-to-Happiness.html on devotion to Our Lord (I recommend listening to it!). The priest challenged everyone to spend 15 minutes a day meditating on Our Lord present here on earth in the Blessed Sacrament, thinking about Him, rather than ourselves. This means not just meditating in the car, but actually setting aside 15 minutes of our day (I'm sure we can all manage 15 minutes) to truly stop and think about Our Lord in a quiet place. Take the focus completely away from us and meditate only on God, for Charity cannot reign in a heart that is self-centered and we must have it reign in our hearts because Charity is love of God. How can we say that we truly love God when our hearts are full of so many worldly things? If we really loved Him, we would have no issue taking 15 minutes at the very least to converse with God and meditate on Him. Don't we like to talk with the people we love? Don't we spend hours sometimes talking with these people? Then certainly we can do the same for the One whom we are supposed to love above all else and Who loves us enough to die for us.
The priest said to do this for 30 days. I'd really like to make this a new resolution as I've been so bad about truly meditating. There are so many things I'm sure Our Lord is trying to me that I'm too busy to hear and won't actually stop to listen.
So here it goes...15 minutes a day, for 30 days!
~Lindsay
Saturday, August 17, 2013
Thursday, August 15, 2013
Happy Feast of the Assumption!
Happy Feast of the Assumption! What a beautiful feast day...then again I think all the Marian Feast Days are beautiful. What joy must the angels and saints in Heaven have experienced to welcome Our Lady into Paradise. And it's hard to even imagine how happy our Mother must have been to be reunited with her Son. Now she takes such good care of us, lovingly watching and guiding us from above. How many times she has come to us to deliver messages to help us save our souls and interceded for us, pleading with her Son to give mankind another chance. How many more chances will we get before Our Lord can't stand to watch His Beloved Mother being slammed and slighted after she has only tried to help us? It certainly does make one wonder.
We have had such beautiful weather the past couple of days! The breeze carries with it the smell and feel of Autumn (I know, I hate to even say it!). But after the heat we experienced at the beginning of the summer, I am ready to welcome Autumn with open arms. I spotted a couple of trees already changing color...and it's only the middle of August! The fall is such a lovely time though. Crisp, fresh air, brilliantly colored trees of red, orange and yellow, apple picking which of course leads of apple pies (yum!), pumpkin picking, pumpkin carving, fall festivals, corn mazes...can you tell I just love it?! I even love breaking out the sweaters from the back of the closet and taking out the scarves. It's the perfect time to accessorize! :-P
The trees are what I love most about New England. They have something to offer in all the season. In Summer, they are full of life with their big green leaves rustling in the wind and birds happily chirping on their branches. When Autumn rolls around, those leaves turn beautiful colors of red, orange and yellow. The smell of the leaves is carried on the wind and the dead leaves gather on the ground waiting for some happy group of children to come along and make piles and jump in them. Though the winter leaves them bare, nothing is more beautiful then when they are covered with a blanket of sparkling white snow. And in the Spring, after having seen them bare so long in the winter, it is such a joy to watch buds spring out on the branches and new leaves begin to appear. Ahh, such are God's creations...full of beauty and wonder!
Well, I must finish up here. Had a lovely picnic in the park with my mother, two sisters and my beautiful nieces and nephew. And of course finishing up with Mass was the perfect end to the day.
A blessed Feast Day to you all!
~Lindsay
We have had such beautiful weather the past couple of days! The breeze carries with it the smell and feel of Autumn (I know, I hate to even say it!). But after the heat we experienced at the beginning of the summer, I am ready to welcome Autumn with open arms. I spotted a couple of trees already changing color...and it's only the middle of August! The fall is such a lovely time though. Crisp, fresh air, brilliantly colored trees of red, orange and yellow, apple picking which of course leads of apple pies (yum!), pumpkin picking, pumpkin carving, fall festivals, corn mazes...can you tell I just love it?! I even love breaking out the sweaters from the back of the closet and taking out the scarves. It's the perfect time to accessorize! :-P
The trees are what I love most about New England. They have something to offer in all the season. In Summer, they are full of life with their big green leaves rustling in the wind and birds happily chirping on their branches. When Autumn rolls around, those leaves turn beautiful colors of red, orange and yellow. The smell of the leaves is carried on the wind and the dead leaves gather on the ground waiting for some happy group of children to come along and make piles and jump in them. Though the winter leaves them bare, nothing is more beautiful then when they are covered with a blanket of sparkling white snow. And in the Spring, after having seen them bare so long in the winter, it is such a joy to watch buds spring out on the branches and new leaves begin to appear. Ahh, such are God's creations...full of beauty and wonder!
Well, I must finish up here. Had a lovely picnic in the park with my mother, two sisters and my beautiful nieces and nephew. And of course finishing up with Mass was the perfect end to the day.
A blessed Feast Day to you all!
~Lindsay
Friday, August 9, 2013
Musings on a Rainy Day
Something about being curled up all cozy inside on a rainy day. Only problem is that it's a lovely, muggy, warm rain (emphasis on the sarcasm). So I'm enjoying our beautiful new AC unit in the bedroom...never thought I could love a little white box so much. With this pregnancy, the heat has been much harder to bear. 70 degrees feels like 80, 80 feels like 90, and those days when we were in the 90s? I was pretty much out of commission. I'm sure I'll be looking back wistfully on those hot sunny days when I'm staring out the window at 3 feet of snow in 10 degree weather though. I can't complain too much about the winter. I do love the feeling of being cozy and warm inside while watching the snow falling so peacefully outside, covering everything with a blanket of white. (I'm sure I'll be singing a different tune when our power is out from downed lines, and getting to work is a royal pain, but let's stay positive, shall we?) Cuppa's in the evening (my hubby's Aussie word for a cup of anything hot: tea, cocoa, coffee) while settling down with a good book, enjoying the company of my husband. Okay, I think it's time for me to return to the present, and stop rushing through summer.
We had a lovely evening last night with a friend over for dinner. I served a delicious Cranberry Orange Pork Roast, Ranch Mashed Potatoes, and buttered carrots. Of course we had the finish the evening with dessert, so I pulled out my specialty...Apple Pie, much to Zenith's (my husband) delight. It's so nice to get together with other young people who share a love of the Faith. It's the basis of our everyday life and so easily enters into our normal conversations. It's such a blessing to share that with others. So few young people care enough about their Faith to truly live it. It's one thing to go around talking about it, but it's quite another to actually follow the commandments God has so carefully laid out for us, and apply them to our day to day activities. It's one thing we all struggle with, most especially myself. The world has so much attraction and the things it offers slowly pull us into its snares, often without realizing it. I've found the more I empty myself of the desires for things of this world and try to detach myself from it, the more God's grace automatically fills me up, and He guides me toward Him, with little credit to me. That's not to say I stay that way. It seems as soon as I've detached myself from one thing, something else comes along, and I'm fighting once again to resist. But it's like I said before, a constant journey with lots of detours.
I'm starting to feel much better now that I'm in my 15th week of pregnancy. I struggled with nausea until about week 13, thankfully I never got sick enough to throw up. The latest battle has been trying to breathe. The smallest thing leaves me winded. It's pretty pathetic when you're sitting at dinner, huffing and puffing because you just winded yourself by eating. We're on the second floor of a two family home and bringing groceries up those stares can be a challenge! By the end of it, I actually need to go lay down and rest. And I'm only 14 weeks pregnant! Looking forward the the months ahead...ohhh boy.
Went to the doctor this week for a check up to see how the baby is growing. (Or maybe to see how I'm growing since it was me who he measured.) I'm primarily seeing a midwife, but as she works in a team with a doctor, I will occasionally be checking up with the doctor. He was very nice, and I love my midwife. She has had many years of experience and had such a caring approach. The hospital where I will deliver has 9 midwives so if all goes well, I'll be delivering with one of them. I did a lot of research before choosing who to go with and decided on a midwife because of their more natural, caring approach. The risk of c-section is greatly reduced as the midwife will put more time and effort into trying to avoid that.
I heard my little one's heartbeat again at the appointment. It's so amazing to think I have a little person growing inside me. What an incredible process that is happening! God is performing such a miracle inside me and I am blessed He has found Zenith and I worthy to be parents of one of His children. I pray every day that this child will grow to love Our Lord with a tender devotion and I will be able to return him/her to God as a saint.
Well, I hope everyone is enjoying the rain! I was watching our neighbors' two little girls last week, (they have five children) walking down the driveway in their raincoats, boots, and umbrellas, splashing in puddles. Ahh, brings back so many memories.
~ Lindsay
We had a lovely evening last night with a friend over for dinner. I served a delicious Cranberry Orange Pork Roast, Ranch Mashed Potatoes, and buttered carrots. Of course we had the finish the evening with dessert, so I pulled out my specialty...Apple Pie, much to Zenith's (my husband) delight. It's so nice to get together with other young people who share a love of the Faith. It's the basis of our everyday life and so easily enters into our normal conversations. It's such a blessing to share that with others. So few young people care enough about their Faith to truly live it. It's one thing to go around talking about it, but it's quite another to actually follow the commandments God has so carefully laid out for us, and apply them to our day to day activities. It's one thing we all struggle with, most especially myself. The world has so much attraction and the things it offers slowly pull us into its snares, often without realizing it. I've found the more I empty myself of the desires for things of this world and try to detach myself from it, the more God's grace automatically fills me up, and He guides me toward Him, with little credit to me. That's not to say I stay that way. It seems as soon as I've detached myself from one thing, something else comes along, and I'm fighting once again to resist. But it's like I said before, a constant journey with lots of detours.
I'm starting to feel much better now that I'm in my 15th week of pregnancy. I struggled with nausea until about week 13, thankfully I never got sick enough to throw up. The latest battle has been trying to breathe. The smallest thing leaves me winded. It's pretty pathetic when you're sitting at dinner, huffing and puffing because you just winded yourself by eating. We're on the second floor of a two family home and bringing groceries up those stares can be a challenge! By the end of it, I actually need to go lay down and rest. And I'm only 14 weeks pregnant! Looking forward the the months ahead...ohhh boy.
Went to the doctor this week for a check up to see how the baby is growing. (Or maybe to see how I'm growing since it was me who he measured.) I'm primarily seeing a midwife, but as she works in a team with a doctor, I will occasionally be checking up with the doctor. He was very nice, and I love my midwife. She has had many years of experience and had such a caring approach. The hospital where I will deliver has 9 midwives so if all goes well, I'll be delivering with one of them. I did a lot of research before choosing who to go with and decided on a midwife because of their more natural, caring approach. The risk of c-section is greatly reduced as the midwife will put more time and effort into trying to avoid that.
I heard my little one's heartbeat again at the appointment. It's so amazing to think I have a little person growing inside me. What an incredible process that is happening! God is performing such a miracle inside me and I am blessed He has found Zenith and I worthy to be parents of one of His children. I pray every day that this child will grow to love Our Lord with a tender devotion and I will be able to return him/her to God as a saint.
Well, I hope everyone is enjoying the rain! I was watching our neighbors' two little girls last week, (they have five children) walking down the driveway in their raincoats, boots, and umbrellas, splashing in puddles. Ahh, brings back so many memories.
~ Lindsay
Monday, August 5, 2013
Time for something new...
I thought it might be a nice idea for me to start blogging. As I have the summer off (I work in a public school as a Signing Para in the Deaf Program), I thought I would take advantage of the extra time I have. Lately, it's been difficult to find the energy or motivation to do a lot since I'm 14 weeks pregnant, and still not quite out of the "feeling green" stage. I'm not sure at this stage how long I'll continue with the blog after I start up work again, especially since I'm the world's biggest procrastinator, but we'll see.
Another reason for blogging is that I want to keep reminding myself of the many blessings God has showered on me, and keep in mind that He has placed me here on earth to serve Him. Writing all these things down is one way I can keep focused on Him and be constantly reminded of my daily blessings.
I truly am a very blessed young woman. I have been raised in a beautiful family of 5 girls with wonderful parents to instill in me good Catholic values and teachings. I am newly married to the most amazing man, and being a devout Catholic himself, I know he will always try his best to lead our family along the path to Heaven.
We attend the Traditional Latin Mass and have found such peace and joy in living our Faith. Of course every day is a struggle to learn more and grow more deeply in matters of the Faith as there are so many distractions and temptations around every corner. However, God never gives you more than you can handle and always provides us with the necessary graces we need to overcome every trial.
Well, I must bring this post to a close. I pray that God always guides all my words on here, that my meager thoughts may be of some use to others or offer some hope or encouragement to other young women who may be in the same stage of life, encountering similar struggles as Catholic wives and mothers living in a world where we are constantly on the defense against the attack on the Faith and true Christian Womanhood.
Another reason for blogging is that I want to keep reminding myself of the many blessings God has showered on me, and keep in mind that He has placed me here on earth to serve Him. Writing all these things down is one way I can keep focused on Him and be constantly reminded of my daily blessings.
I truly am a very blessed young woman. I have been raised in a beautiful family of 5 girls with wonderful parents to instill in me good Catholic values and teachings. I am newly married to the most amazing man, and being a devout Catholic himself, I know he will always try his best to lead our family along the path to Heaven.
We attend the Traditional Latin Mass and have found such peace and joy in living our Faith. Of course every day is a struggle to learn more and grow more deeply in matters of the Faith as there are so many distractions and temptations around every corner. However, God never gives you more than you can handle and always provides us with the necessary graces we need to overcome every trial.
Well, I must bring this post to a close. I pray that God always guides all my words on here, that my meager thoughts may be of some use to others or offer some hope or encouragement to other young women who may be in the same stage of life, encountering similar struggles as Catholic wives and mothers living in a world where we are constantly on the defense against the attack on the Faith and true Christian Womanhood.
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